The ascetic "lives the life of a king" ( ibid., p. 187, l. 5). Contented men are the noblest of all (p. 148, l. 2). So the great Persian mystic, Jalálu ’l-Dín Rúmí, says in reference to the perfect Ṣúfí ( Díván-i Shams-i Tabríz, No. viii, v. 3 in my edition): Mard-i khudá sháh buvad zír-i dalq, "the man of God is a king 'neath dervish-cloak;" and eminent spiritualists are frequently described as "kings of the (mystic) path." I do not deny, however, that this metaphor may have been originally suggested by the story of Buddha.

542 Díwán, p. 25, l. 3 sqq. Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya took credit to himself for introducing 'the language of the market-place' into his poetry ( ibid.p. 12, l. 3 seq.).

543 Díwán(Beyrout, 1886), p. 23, l. 13 et seqq.

544 Ibid., p. 51, l. 2.

545 Ibid., p. 132, l. 3.

546 Ibid., p. 46, l. 16.

547 Díwán, p. 260, l. 11 et seqq.

548 Ibid., p. 295, l. 14 et seqq.

549 Ibid., p. 287, l. 10 seq.

550 Ibid., p. 119, l. 11.

551 Ibid., p. 259, penultimate line et seq.

552 Ibid., p. 115, l. 4.

553 Díwán, p. 51, l. 10.

554 Ibid., p. 133, l. 5.

555 Ibid., p. 74, l. 4.

556 Ibid., p. 149, l. 12 seq.

557 Ibid., p. 195, l. 9. Cf.p. 243, l. 4 seq.

558 Ibid., p. 274, l. 6.

559 Ibid., p. 262, l. 4.

560 Ibid., p. 346, l. 11. Cf.p. 102, l. 11; p. 262, l. 1 seq.; p. 267, l. 7. This verse is taken from Abu ’l-‘Atáhiya's famous didactic poem composed in rhyming couplets, which is said to have contained 4,000 sentences of morality. Several of these have been translated by Von Kremer in his Culturgeschichte des Orients, vol. ii, p. 374 sqq.

561 In one of his poems ( Díwán, p. 160, l. 11), he says that he has lived ninety years, but if this is not a mere exaggeration, it needs to be corrected. The words for 'seventy' and 'ninety' are easily confused in Arabic writing.

562 Tha‘álibí, Yatimatu ’l-Dahr(Damascus, 1304 a.h.), vol. i, p. 8 seq.

563 See Von Kremer's Culturgeschichte, vol. ii, p. 381 sqq.; Ahlwardt, Poesie und Poetik der Araber, p. 37 sqq.; R. Dvorak, Abú Firás, ein arabischer Dichter und Held(Leyden, 1895).

564 Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 493. Wáḥidí gives the whole story in his commentary on this verse.

565 Mutanabbí, it is said, explained to Sayfu ’l-Dawla that by surra(gladden) he meant surriyya; whereupon the good-humoured prince presented him with a slave-girl.

566 Literally, "Do not imagine fat in one whose (apparent) fat is (really) a tumour."

567 Díwán, ed. by Dieterici, pp. 481-484.

568 The most esteemed commentary is that of Wáḥidí (õ 1075 a.d.), which has been published by Fr. Dieterici in his edition of Mutanabbí (Berlin, 1858-1861).

569 Motenebbi, der grösste arabische Dichter(Vienna, 1824).

570 Abulfedæ Annales Muslemici(Hafniæ, 1789, &c.), vol. ii, p. 774. Cf.his notes on Ṭarafa's Mu‘allaqa, of which he published an edition in 1742.

571 Chrestomathie Arabe(2nd edition), vol. iii, p. 27 sqq. Journal des Savans, January, 1825, p. 24 sqq.

572 Commentatio de Motenabbio(Bonn, 1824).

573 Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur(Weimar, 1898, &c.), vol. i, p. 86.

574 I have made free use of Dieterici's excellent work entitled Mutanabbi und Seifuddaula aus der Edelperle des Tsaâlibi(Leipzig, 1847), which contains on pp. 49-74 an abstract of Tha‘álibí's criticism in the fifth chapter of the First Part of the Yatíma.

575 Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 182, vv. 3-9, omitting v. 5.

576 The author of these lines, which are quoted by Ibn Khallikán in his article on Mutanabbí, is Abu ’l-Qásim b. al-Muẓaffar b. ‘Alí al-Ṭabasí.

577 Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 581, v. 27.

578 Ibid., p. 472, v. 5.

579 Mutanabbí, ed. by Dieterici, p. 341, v. 8.

580 Margoliouth's Introduction to the Letters of Abu ’l-‘Alá, p. xxii.

581 Ibid., p. xxvii seq.

582 Luzúmiyyát(Cairo, 1891), vol. i, p. 201.

583 I.e., his predecessors of the modern school. Like Mutanabbí, he ridicules the conventional types ( asálíb) in which the old poetry is cast Cf. Goldziher, Abhand. zur Arab. Philologie, Part 1, p. 146 seq.

584 The proper title is Luzúmu má lá yalzam, referring to a technical difficulty which the poet unnecessarily imposed on himself with regard to the rhyme.

585 Abulfedæ Annales Muslemici, ed. by Adler (1789-1794), vol. iii, p. 677.

586 Literaturgesch. der Araber, vol. vi, p. 900 sqq.

587 Sitzungsberichte der Philosophisch-Historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, vol. cxvii, 6th Abhandlung (Vienna, 1889). Select passages admirably rendered by Von Kremer into German verse will be found in the Z.D.M.G., vol. 29, pp. 304-312; vol. 30, pp. 40-52; vol. 31, pp. 471-483; vol. 38, pp. 499-529.

588 Z.D.M.G., vol. 38, p. 507; Margoliouth, op. cit., p. 131, l. 15 of the Arabic text.

589 Z.D.M.G., vol. 29, p. 308.

590 Margoliouth, op. cit., p. 133 of the Arabic text.

591 This passage occurs in Abu ’l-‘Alá's Risálatu ’l-Ghufrán(see infra), J.R.A.S.for 1902, p. 351. Cf.the verses translated by Von Kremer in his essay on Abu ’l-‘Alá, p. 23.

592 For the term 'Ḥaníf' see p. 149 supra. Here it is synonymous with 'Muslim.'

593 Z.D.M.G., vol. 38, p. 513.

594 This work, of which only two copies exist in Europe—one at Constantinople and another in my collection—has been described and partially translated in the J.R.A.S.for 1900, pp. 637-720, and for 1902, pp. 75-101, 337-362, and 813-847.

595 Margoliouth, op. cit., p. 132, last line of the Arabic text.

596 Z.D.M.G., vol. 31, p. 483.

597 De Gobineau, Les religions et les philosophies dans l'Asie centrale, p. 11 seq.

598 Z.D.M.G., vol. 31, p. 477.

599 Ibid., vol. 29, p. 311.

600 Z.D.M.G.vol. 38, p. 522.

601 According to De Goeje, Mémoires sur les Carmathes du Bahrain, p. 197, n. 1, these lines refer to a prophecy made by the Carmathians that the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, which took place in 1047 a.d. would herald the final triumph of the Fáṭimids over the ‘Abbásids.

602 Z.D.M.G., vol. 38, p. 504.

603 Z.D.M.G., vol. 31, p. 474.

604 Luzúmiyyát(Cairo, 1891), i, 394.

605 Ibid., i, 312.

606 Von Kremer, op. cit., p. 38.

607 Safar-náma, ed. by Schefer, p. 10 seq. = pp. 35-36 of the translation.

608 Luzúmiyyát, ii, 280. The phrase does not mean "I am the child of my age," but "I live in the present," forgetful of the past and careless what the future may bring.

609 See Von Kremer, op. cit., p. 46 sqq.

610 See the article on Ṭughrá’í in Ibn Khallikán, De Slane's translation, vol. i, p. 462.

611 Ibid., vol. iii, p. 355.

612 The spirit of fortitude and patience ( ḥamása) is exhibited by both poets, but in a very different manner. Shanfará describes a man of heroic nature. Ṭughrá’í wraps himself in his virtue and moralises like a Muḥammadan Horace. Ṣafadí, however, says in his commentary on Ṭughrá’í's ode (I translate from a MS. copy in my possession): "It is named Lámiyyatu ’l-‘Ajamby way of comparing it with the Lámiyyatu ’l-‘Arab, because it resembles the latter in its wise sentences and maxims."

613 I.e., the native of Abúṣir (Búṣír), a village in Egypt.